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Mrs. Wife has not come this time. But even without her it's been amazing and incredible.
Now driving back home with my parents and willing to see it on tv.
Let's see if it helps us to be able to vote this november the 9th.
I'm curious: have you seen or heard something about it?
Some pictures you can see on Internet:
1[^]
2[^]
Each stripe of the "human flag" was made of 4 people lines, there were then 36 people on each complete flag line and this along 11 kilometers.
See this timelapse video 25" only: http://vimeo.com/105914640[^]
modified 12-Sep-14 4:49am.
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How are things in Barcelona?
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Really nice... we've made a V letter with la senyera (our flag) using 4 people with yellow and red t-shirts to conform each stripe of the flag.
For what I've heard 1.8 million of people have created an eleven km V shaped flag.
It's been really nice.
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Look, see my original post, there you will see a couple of links to pictures on one newspaper.
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I've heard about it, but I think it helps that I'll arrive at El Prat tomorrow evening. 
It was also a short segment on the TV news in Sweden tonight.
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Tomorrow you won't notice anything.
What takes you to El Prat?
Nice to know that it's been seen in Sweden.
Thank you!
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Haven't you heard about it then?
Where are you from?
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The UK. So whats goin on in Barcelona then?
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See again my original post and you will be able to see a couple of pictures from one newspaper.
We were celebrating the national catalan day, and after 300 years of having been in Spain we want to vote this 9th of November to be out of Spain and to become another European membre State.
We made 11 kilometers of human flag in a V shape (see Churchill sign) in two of the biggest streets of Barcelona (see the pictures), it was really exciting seeing all kind of catalan people having a celebration like that with Castells, music,... it was around 1.800.000 people out in Barcelona at the same time in those two streets. It was really nice to see, even apart of the political meaning, it was impressive in terms of numbers.
As it's been this amount of people and it's being said that it is one of the biggest concentrations of all times, I was curious of where in the world this has been seen, therefore the question here...
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Joan Murt wrote: we want to vote this 9th of November to be out of Spain and to become another
European membre State.
Interesting, I thought it was only the UK that was suffering this. Isnt Catalonia so independent anyway that it virtually is a seperate state?
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Isnt Catalonia so independent anyway that it virtually is a seperate state
Not at all, Catalans have our own language (even all of us know to speak in Spanish), We've always have got our schools in Catalan (and we've got the Spanish subject). Now they are forcing schools to make everything in Spanish and forget Catalan if only one student asks to study in Spanish... The other option is to put that guy/girl that wants to study in Spanish into a private center and make all the Catalan contributors to pay for it. Apart of all the economical disparities that exist from different parts of Spain... If we would leave them we would be for sure much more richer... This is The Lounge and it is not the right place for politics (and the original post was not intended to explain anything about it, it was more an attempt to see how many people did know anything about it).
In Valencia where people have always spoken Valencian (a really similar to Catalan language) they have schools that make all the subjects in Spanish... Seeing that "strange" Catalan situation some Valencian families have asked to get their children educated in Valencian... You can't imagine the answer of our Spanish politicians... They've told that this can't be done only for one or two families... Well in Catalonia last year only 17 families asked to get their children educated in Spanish...
Those and a lot other reasons make 1,8 million of people to go out on the streets to ask for a possibility to vote.
Don't know the Scots reasons, at least saying you belong to the UK can make the UKers proud of it as it is a great country, being Spanish is a lot of things but, usually, when I travel around and take planes I try to say I'm Catalan or at least to not make a lot of noise to be unseen... 
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Do you have local control of taxation, spending etc in Catalonia?
Joan Murt wrote: at least saying you belong to the UK can make the UKers proud of it as it is a
great country
Why do you say the UK is great? I would like to know how you see it since as a UK native I have a probably more jaded view of the place.
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Munchies_Matt wrote: Do you have local control of taxation, spending etc in Catalonia?
No, our taxes go to Madrid, they divide them and at the end we end up loosing a 40% of what we paid...
In some parts of Spain there are policies that could have been nice years ago but that nowadays they are terrible:
On a travel to Paris, I met a couple from Seville, he worked on the construction a normal set of hours. She had an agreement with three other girls and with her boss: she worked only 1/4 of the year... the other 3/4 were for her 3 colleagues. In south of Spain if they work 1/4 of the year the other 3/4 parts are covered by an automatic subside... That was done to allow the farmers to live due to the kind of cereals they planted, but this is a really extended way to trick the system. The problem is big once this is done extensively in the south... in Extremadura there's a lot of people that earn money by going to adult school to learn a profession... I dated an Extremadura girl years ago who lived near Girona (Catalonia), once we met a neighbor of her parent's house in Extremadura... she was learning how to become a plasterer... before she was learning to be a carpenter... and so on... that is another way to waste public money by not working and waiting for everything to come "for free".
Nobody is using them but if you visit Extremadura you will see the best roads in Spain... and all of them for free... ours cost us money...
Sorry, too much politics here...
Munchies_Matt wrote: Why do you say the UK is great? I would like to know how you see it since as a UK native I have a probably more jaded view of the place.
Great music, great whiskey, great films, great cars (Rolls, Bentley, Jaguar, Lotus,...), you don't have to hide each time Ana Botella or any other important political or not person tries to speak in English to drink a "Café con leche in the plaza mayor"... We are the best in terms of unemployment...
Just compare: http://country-facts.findthebest.com/compare/28-131/United-Kingdom-vs-Spain[^]...
I've been only once in the UK... the things that surprised me a lot were:
- Carpet everywere... even under water piles!
- Two taps on water piles... when I wanted to shave on morning I had to pick a little of ultra cold water and a little of ultra hot one to try not dying on the shaving process...
- The hotel where we stayed had a pub on it's basement and it was almost impossible to sleep.
- Green moss on any filter on the bathroom. The hotel itself was not an ultra-clean place...
- Full English breakfast is not a breakfast is a way to kill tourists.
- There was another pub which people joined to drink beer and sing on karaoke... they all looked like professionals... it was amazing. (I think it was Woody's bar, but don't trust me a lot, moreover, I'm sure it was not yellow and purple like it's seen on street view).
- Ultra thickness in painting (windows, road lines...) everything was ultra thick... I'm sure you could remove the wood of the windows and nobody would even notice it.
- Girls... all of them were able to go with their arms uncovered in winter... my colleague and me were using big coats and still it was cold.
I stayed at Crewe, at the Royal Hotel, we usually ate at Giovannis in the Nantwich road... it was a nice place and the owner was a great guy.
It was interesting driving on the WRONG side of the road 
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Joan Murt wrote: we end up loosing a 40% of what we paid
Thats going to create a big drive for independence.
The situation where you get paid for doing a 1/4 of a year is madness! Dear oh dear, not surprised the country is bust!
THe UK is distinctive, thats for sure. THe paint I think is just from having it redone every year, for centuries. 
Carpets, yes, everywhere. Byt we live in bare footed warm confort all year, none of that hard tiles stuff!
The music is good, actually, its incredibly good, so far better than anything else in the world its almost embarassingly good. And I have no idea why the UK has been so good at music for so long. Its just somethign we seem to do very well.
Breakfast though, come on, thats a REAL breakfast! IF you ever go skiing, or mountaineering, eat a breakfast lilke that, it will keep you going all day.
Our hotels can be crappy though, there is a lot of old stuff in the UK, old and worn out, but I suppose it is picturesque too.
(By the way it is 'pipes' not 'piles' Piles is sonethig you get on your arse from sitting on cold stone. )
I love the costa brava though, I live just north of MArseille, so its not far and we often go there. I love the food, and the easy going non pretentious Cataln way of doing things. Zarzuela! My favourite dish!
I dont know why Catalunia isnt way more built up. You have great weather, great coastline, two superb airports, and great skiing just inland. It has everything the French Riviera has. If I wanted to set up a business I would put it in Catalunia. Its got everything,
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If the benefits and taxes were reduced and labour laws changed so companies can hire and fire people, like in the US and UK, you get far more dynamic and productive economies. Look at the UK today, it has the best ecconomy in the world. Two years ago it was in the sh*t. Thats what a dynamic ecconomy can do, it can respond to changes in the market and adapt. It could be incredible, Catalunia, if it could do the same as the UK,
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Once I spoke with one USA guy that was astonished when he knew about our system were one bad-or-not worker gets fired and get a lot of money as compensation... his first question was... but as a company owner... do you get "compensated" each time you hire somebody?
Only if we were not throwing this big amount of money each day towards Spain it would be much much better... imagine if what you are saying here would be also introduced... then probably we would start having the best music in the world as we could buy your musicians! 
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The US of course has the same system, and law, as the UK, since it is a UK off shoot. This difference, between the UK and the way France, Belgium, Spain etc run, is what really stands between the UK and continental Europe and why the UK can never use the euro. The ecconomies are just so different.
Job security in the UK comes from it being easy to get another job, provided your skills are marketable, and you usually get a good pay rise too. Of course if your skils arent wanted, then its tough titties!
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Damn, the Spanish birth rate is very low! How will you maintain the populaiton, it must be shrinking rapidly!
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Don't ask that please... don't ask that... imagine my wife reads that! 
Given the fact we have almost a 25% of unemployment is not strange seeing that nobody wants to have children...
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Went to Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) for the first time last year... it was amazing. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go again some time.
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Nice places for sure.
Spain is a nice place for tourists...
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Funny, I thought your celebration was on the 23rd of June.
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Not 23 but 24, the 23th of Juny is when we get drunk, jump on fire, dance...
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